


home is where the bezoar is

by galaxygerbil



Series: best possible worlds [1]
Category: Red Velvet (K-pop Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-01
Updated: 2018-10-15
Packaged: 2019-07-01 00:46:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15763152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/galaxygerbil/pseuds/galaxygerbil
Summary: yeri is a ravenclaw in her fifth year, which means she should be making prefect rounds, acing her OWLs, and looking for a potioneer to apprentice under. unfortunately, it's the triwizard tournament, so she finds herself willingly helping the beauxbatons representative because of a hyperfixation, meddling with the affairs of the durmstrang participant, and accidentally sabotaging the chances of the hogwarts champion instead.yes, she said hyperfixation.no, she did not mean to say “silly crush.”or: yeri finds herself gravitating towards the beauxbatons girl with a cheeky smile and a laugh that sounds like spring.





	1. if it looks like a hippogriff, flies like a hippogriff, and kicks like a hippogriff…

**Author's Note:**

> for the fact that this fic exists, kindly blame/praise the two people whom I will be naming. many thanks to j. ([tillkingdomcome](https://www.asianfanfics.com/profile/view/1768345)) for their inspiring art and own conception of this universe while always having good things to say about the previews. I also cannot possibly stress enough how thankful I am that cat ([qaisal](https://www.asianfanfics.com/profile/view/1804605)) was willing to beta read (at least the first chapter, as I post this) and not sever our friendship from secondhand embarrassment due to all the typos, heh.
> 
> hopefully this piece will turn out exactly the way we all imagined it to be, if not better.
> 
> [this work has been crossposted from AFF with the same title and under the same username.]
> 
> enjoy!  
> ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ

          in stark contrast to the burly and intimidating durmstrang fleet, the beauxbatons envoy arrives in a hurricane of sparkling dust and a breathtaking carriage that holds its equally eye-catching witches and wizards— or so she's heard. yeri has yet to discover if it's true, but so far there are several rumors circulating that at least half the student body from said academy of magic are in fact part-veela.

she and a few housemates watch from the large windows of ravenclaw tower, still in their clothes from travel and not yet in their respective blue and bronze robes.

“that is _so_ illegal.” a third year grumbles next to her, eyes locked on the beautifully winged abraxan horses that started strutting upon flying by. “the international confederation of wizards had a field day with that one. surely.”

“which clause does it break?” a second year asks, and yeri laughs. she can't help but wonder why they'd rather discuss international laws than the international students hidden in the caravan, seemingly more interested in the political games being played instead of the tournament about to be held. no wonder the other houses call their house peculiar.

“that's enough. you'll get to see them at the feast.” she says, pulling on the shirts of the younger students and ignoring their whines of protest.

“but— !”

she cuts him off quickly, because to have a distracted ravenclaw just _spelled_ disaster and yeri didn’t want to start her year off in that way. “don't forget we're hosting beauxbatons. you can ask them anything you want, clause included, once we all meet.”

“wait, so _you_ don't know which clause was breached?” a young boy asks as they all collectively step away from the windows. “how did you make prefect then?” he accuses, scrunching his nose at the thought that someone in yeri’s position could be anything other than omniscient.

yeri raises an eyebrow at the snooty remark and pinches his ear.

“ow ow ow! hey! this is physical assault!”

“it's _obviously_ clause 73.” she says nonchalantly, smirking as their faces turned to her in horror and the kids tried covering their ears though they'd already heard her.

“no! we were supposed to research that on our own!”

“great going, dimwit.”

she cackles and steps towards the dormitories, the common room bright and airy as the younger students follow her lead to prepare themselves for dinner.

 

 

 

 

 

“is that their headmistress?”

“are you daft? who else would the headmistress be, the girls around her?”

yeri’s eyes snap away from their table of bickering smartarses and toward the beak-nosed delegate of the school from france, ironically breezing through the great hall as lightly and smoothly as a feather despite her height of, what looked to the fifth-year, at least 10 feet.

the girl just in front the woman moves like a fairy: several ways ethereal. _she's definitely part-veela_ , yeri thinks, noticing the jaws of the boys around her go slack. though, in retrospect, their reactions may have been more towards the girls’ backsides rather than the exceptionally alluring eyes of the one in the lead.

“reckon that's their bet for champion?”

yeri turns toward her housemate. “either that or she's their head girl— whatever its equivalent is in their school.”

the other ravenclaws hum in thought as the rest of the beauxbatons students filed in, but the fifth-year's eyes were stuck on the girl at the very front.

 _she’s pretty_.

“d’you reckon they've no head boy then?”

“well she _is_ the only one leading the entourage.”

she was about to provide her own two cents before hogwarts’ own head girl, a fellow ravenclaw, calls for her. “prefects, step up.”

yeri does and walks with her fellow prefects to meet with the delegates as soon as the introductions were over, smiling at the nervous firsties and ruffling a few heads of hair as she passed by. “get through the feast and _then_ read at your leisure.” she says to one young boy, tapping the book entitled _a fully illustrated history of the flying carpet_ in his hands. “you wouldn't want to miss such a special year.”

“yes ma'am.”

it was more of a formality than anything else, coming forward to interact with the foreigners. as soon as news broke of ravenclaw’s role in this entire spectacle, the older prefects called for an emergency meeting after the regular one during the train ride. there, they settled that the seventh years would be taking care of the delegates, the sixth would take charge of the rest of the ‘claws, and the fifth— yeri and her male counterpart— would guide and handle the firsties. but it would be best to introduce themselves as a solid unit.

“welcome to hogwarts! we hope you're finding it as beautiful as we did once we first saw it.” their head girl says as a way of breaking the ice. the beauxbatons students had a gleam in their eyes that yeri was all too familiar with as soon as she stepped foot outside the muggle world and into the magical one.

pompous. condescending. uppity and smug.

“it is… acceptable.” pretty girl/head girl/champion bet replies blandly, a hint of an accent, while the rest of the students garbed in blue silk look just as unenthusiastic. “and who are these?”

yeri has to bite her lip to hide her amusement at the bristling head girl of hogwarts, trying her best to be amicable to the outright rude beauxbatons pupils. “these are our prefects. the seventh years will be your guides, and each year level—”

before she can continue, the hall is quieted down by an extremely loud screech of “what does he mean _no quidditch this year!_ ” from the gryffindor table. the rest of the students follow the violent reaction and the prefects are quick to get everyone to settle down; though thankfully yeri’s own house isn’t as obsessed with the sport as others.

“that’s too bad, yeri.” a sixth year tells her as she does more of a job calming down the younger years. “we were excited to suggest new insults for you to hurl as quidditch announcer.”

“it truly is unfortunate.” she replies, mood brought down by the fact that she couldn’t scam people for money by providing an insult suggestion box before every game anymore. “oh well. there's always next year.”

 

 

 

 

 

yeri gives a slight bow to the nurse at the infirmary. “thank you.”

“no problem at all. run along now, it's almost curfew!”

yeri would have shown the nurse her badge and cite the privileges it entails— such as no curfew— but decides to just humor her for now. she really does have to get going, anyway.

“hey, get better soon okay?” yeri smiles at the young girl, too small for even the tiny bed at the infirmary. “it's only the first day. take care of yourself.”

“yes ma'am. thank you for bringing me.” the girl squeaks out, young yet bright-eyed by the prospect of spending a night in a new environment. or it could've been the allergic reaction. muggleborns tend to not know which magical foods they had severe reactions to.

the prefect closes the large doors behind her and starts to make her way back up to the tower, weaving in and out of entryways she knew like the back of her wand hand.

it was not uncommon to find firsties stuck outside of the common room, huddled pathetically in the corner and haunted by the thought that they couldn't answer the riddle asked by the ravenclaw door knocker.

however, it was _very_ rare to see a beauxbatons girl outside it instead, frowning at the door as if pouting as much as possible would grant her entrance. that won't work, though. yeri’s already tried it.

“hello.” the fifth-year speaks tentatively, wary of the foreigners and their arrogant attitudes. “what seems to be the problem?”

“oh!” the girl turns around and yeri is bombarded with the sight of big honey-colored eyes and full lips on a face of soft cheeks. “sorry, I didn't mean to be a bother.”

yeri notices that, while the other beauxbatons students had a slightly foreign lilt to their words and a stuck-up demeanor to boot, this girl in front of her seemed to be completely devoid of both. _huh_.

“it's just that I begged to know where the library was and got left behind and now, err, I don't know how to get in.”

oh, and she was really _nice_ too. the ravenclaw tilts her head while observing the girl who kind of looked like a ray of sunshine in these dreary halls. kind of. she looked like she belonged in a palace— not these dusty towers. “alright. had you been with your assigned prefect, you’d have been informed of this earlier.” she says while stepping up toward the knocker, pounding it six times in succession; the first three at a constant pace and the last three quickly.

“is it a secret knock?” the girl asks and yeri sneaks a look to see large eyes shining in curiosity and excitement.

she grins. “close. it's a knock to let them know you're not a ravenclaw. to be used for emergencies only, because usually you'd be escorted by one of us and thus they could solve the riddle.”

“oh, I see. that's smart.”

yeri snorts. well, it better be smart. their house was known for their wit and emphasis on intelligence. whatever that means.

“what’s your name, by the way?”

“yeri. I'm the female prefect for the fifth years.”

the other girl nods as the door to the common room swings open at the behest of a third year inside. yeri pats his shoulder as the student beams before going back to his group of friends.

“what about you? what's your name and year?”

“I’m not sure how your year levels here go, but I'm sixteen if that helps. and my name is wendy shon.”

the ravenclaw common room is known to be the biggest in hogwarts; high walls of bookshelves, gigantic windows, and a domed ceiling that makes one feel free. sometimes, when yeri solves a difficult riddle, or finishes her homework perfectly on the first try, or finds out she has much time to spare and read what she wants before class— the common room glows with her, as if she were floating.

yeri feels that way now, a smile creeping its way on her face as she stares at wendy, who outshines even the evening moon and stars, for some inexplicable reason. with no accent, enough curiosity that led her to the library, and the aura of an angel compared to her schoolmates; wendy seemed… out of place.

and yeri has always been interested in enigmas.

“what was the riddle given to you, wendy?”

if the girl is surprised, she merely shows it through a sheepish laugh; then recites what was asked of her by the knocker.

yeri is smiling so widely it almost hurts her cheeks. “the answer was _mystery_.”

 

 

 

 

 

yeri discovers a very good pastime for herself in place of the absence of quidditch games and her role as announcer. she counts the money handed over. “you're short by 10 knuts.” yeri says, eyeing the slytherin teenager in front of her.

“no I'm not.”

she watches him stand to his full height menacingly— an entire 10 inches taller than her and 7 than her friend— but yeri is neither alarmed nor intimidated. they've dealt with a lot worse throughout these first few days of the term.

“oh? then I suppose you should only be getting your money’s worth.” her companion says, raising an arm with the potion in hand, ready to throw it against the wall.

“wait! fine, you stupid bint! here.” he shoves another full sickle in yeri’s hand before grabbing at the age-up potion in her companion’s. “you better hope this works.” he threatens.

“more like you better hope it doesn't send you straight to your grave.” yeri mumbles.

her companion agrees. “there's a limit to how far you can age up before you die. maybe we'll find out when yours is.” she says, buffing her nails on her cloak as the boy pales considerably.

he slinks away in fear.

“another satisfied customer.” her friend snickers, tossing shoulder-length hair behind a shoulder slathered in the same green their client had been wearing.

“you sure get a kick out of making men quake in fear, don't you?” yeri asks, tucking the money in her pocket. “and to think you never get any monetary gains from these transactions.”

the girl cackles. “I don't need the money like you, and I don't do the actual potion making. I'm just along for the ride.”

“and the terrorising of other students.”

“that, too.”

yeri starts to walk toward the great hall for the show and to see if the potion she brewed could trick the goblet, but her friend stops in their tracks. she whips her head back to see hufflepuff robes just around the corner.

“think I'll stay here.” the older girl says, eyes stuck on the corner where yellow disappeared.

yeri shrugs before watching the slytherin fix her tie and straighten her own prefect badge. she was a year older and of a different house than yeri, but it seemed the older girl didn't mind her enough that she let her get away with breaking curfew a year back and even looked amused when the younger got prefect too.

she must've enjoyed the pranks pulled on deserving victims and the fact that yeri did it for money. most likely the latter.

“suit yourself.”

“goodbye then.” the girl says distractedly, walking towards where her eyes were locked in on, the twinkling laughter of a hufflepuff girl echoing throughout the hall.

“see you around, joy.” yeri bids in amusement.

 

 

 

 

 

wendy, as it turns out, is a social butterfly. she’s often in the halls with both beauxbatons students _and_ hogwarts students by her side. even ones from other houses. yeri finds herself in the middle of the courtyard waiting for joy when she sees the said girl next, though they live in the same dorms. granted, it had only been a few nights since their fateful encounter.

“oh, hi yeri!” wendy beams, this time out of her outerwear garb and wearing the silky blue blazer adorned with her school crest. there was a bit of purple on the embroidery, too, in contrast to some of her other schoolmates with green and deep blue highlights.

“hey yourself.” yeri replies, tilting her head as she looks past the french girl and sees her lone companion in her own hogwarts uniform and a black and yellow scarf. “hi seulgi.”

“hello, yeri. how goes it?”

“quite fine, I suppose.” she replies. seulgi and her had different social circles, being a year apart and from different houses, but they at least knew _of_ each other. and that was through joy. “where were you two off to?”

wendy’s eyes brighten considerably as she speaks about being shown hogwarts’ favorite giant’s hut, where some animals and plants could be found. and of course, the friendly man himself. yeri laughs along, asking if none of the older ravenclaws have brought her, and wendy pouts, quoting them saying that they’d rather go to the astronomy tower— which sparks choking laughs out of both seulgi and yeri.

“what? what’s so funny?”

maybe the fact that ‘wanna go to the astronomy tower’ was code for ‘wanna shag at midnight.’ the young ravenclaw holds up a hand through her guffaws. “wait a minute, were these boys or girls suggesting that?”

soft pink lips curl into a half-smirk, and somehow, yeri thinks wendy knows _exactly_ what these students were suggesting.

she finds herself wondering whether the girl ever said _yes_.

before they can speak more, yeri feels a familiar arm drape across her shoulders. with the way seulgi’s eyes light up and her ears tinge pink, the fifth-year figured it was their favorite resident slytherin.

“hello. what’s this? a party without me?” joy says, eyes twinkling with mirth as they stare right at seulgi, who stares back.

 _get a broom closet_ , yeri thinks, blanching at the display.

it’s a few minutes later when joy and seulgi are off in their own world that yeri gets to hear wendy speak again. “they're a cute duo.” the older girl says, amused at the teasing and flirting. if they were trying to be discreet, the two friends would certainly win award for being awful at it.

“it must get like that when you grow up in the same neighborhood.” yeri replies as she takes a seat on a shaded bench, patting the space beside her until wendy occupies it.

“ah, yes. the kang and park houses of the sacred twenty-eight.”

the kangs and parks have been close for generations— partly because every few decades they would marry into each other’s houses, but mostly because they were the only asian families considered to be of the purest blood by the 1930’s when the sacred twenty-eight families were listed.

with joy being the eldest girl, she was the rightful heir, while seulgi was both second child and preceded by a male, making her available to marry off. it wasn’t exactly encouraged for them to be best friends, because seulgi would belong to another family soon enough and any friendship formed between her and joy was unnecessary; as neither family would gain anything from it. ideally, seulgi’s older brother would be better off being married to one of joy’s younger sisters to solidify the bond.

or at least that’s yeri’s understanding of it, from her admittedly uninformed view. maybe she should research some more.

“that's right.”

“this is awkward…” wendy starts to say, and the ravenclaw almost rolls her eyes as she knew where this was leading. it was expected, sure, but that didn’t mean yeri wasn’t allowed to get sick of it. “but, uh, I never got your surname.”

yeri looks away. “kim. my full name is yeri kim.”

she almost _feels_ wendy perk up in recognition. purebloods always thought the same way: if you were the heir of this line you’d be a 20th generation pureblood, because your house withdrew from the muggle world before the witch hunts. if you were of this other line, you’d only be pure as can be for the last 5 generations; converting after the world wars in response to the slowly dwindling magical population, so on and so forth.

yeri doesn't understand why she was hoping for wendy to be different.

“ah! the kims of—”

the ravenclaw cuts her off. “of muggle london.” she snaps, closing her eyes with a huff. “I'm a muggleborn. no relation to the magical kims.”

“oh.”

“yeah, _oh_.”

they don't say anything to each other for a while, the atmosphere thick and heavy with a tension that’s born of generations past, so different from the light conversation joy and seulgi were having.

in her four years of exposure to wizarding britain, yeri has faced almost the entire spectrum of purebloods— including their prejudices. they ranged from the kangs, widely known blood-traitors, to the parks, infamously grey in all political matters, and now, finally, the shons of this world, who have probably been taught all the important family trees and viable candidates for marriage while still in their diapers, if purebloods even had that concept of hygiene. ancient bloodlines brought up by ancient views— yeri’s had enough of it.

(so why in merlin’s name is she so disappointed that wendy is part of that bunch with their backward thinking?)

her thoughts are interrupted by a smirking joy and smiling seulgi making their way towards them. “well, yeri and I here are off to do our thing. you two have fun now.” joy says. seulgi comes forward to loop her arm around wendy, who immediately relaxes.

the hufflepuff nods as the girl in blue robes starts walking away, pulling at her sleeve. “see you around!” seulgi bids goodbye, dragged away by the arm.

“yes, see you around, joy.” wendy smiles at the girl she was only recently introduced to. her mouth is set in a grim line when she says what she does next. “yeri kim.”

yeri smiles, but it doesn’t reach her eyes. “oh you’ll see me for sure, wendy shon. after all— my house is hosting your school.” she quips as the two younger girls watch them walk away arm in arm, yeri feeling the tension in her shoulders stay despite the other girl leaving.

joy turns to the smaller girl. “have you been hiding things from me, partner?”

“I’m sure I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“hmmm… to think that the youngest daughter of the shons would fraternize with you. wouldn’t have expected it. they’re older than even mine and seulgi’s lines, you know. been around since merlin knows when.” the slytherin says thoughtfully.

“are the shons dark?” yeri asks, looking up at her from her seat.

“of course not.” joy shakes her head, locks of her hair bouncing along. “but if their line has survived every plague that's hit france and even their revolution, well…”

“are you saying they're of the royal line?”

“hah. they may as well be. but honestly, who knows. maybe they're just lucky.”

right. lucky. that word doesn't exist in the wizarding world— which means that the shons were a sneaky bunch that managed to always be on the right side of wars and conflicts.

“so. _have_ you been keeping things from me?”

“she got locked out the common room and I was heading back from dropping off a first year at the infirmary.” the ravenclaw shrugs, patting away non-existent flint on her robes in order to avoid the taller girl’s intense stare. “she didn’t know I was… yeah.”

a snort comes out of the slytherin. “obviously, since you even had a conversation going.” she says, starting to walk towards the empty hallways. “if she had known beforehand…”

yeri steps forward to catch up with the taller girl. “what would she have done?”

“well. I suppose we’ll never know. the real question is—”

“what is she going to do now that she's found out?” yeri cuts her off, smiling wickedly. it was fun to push people's buttons; and the ravenclaw had a real kick out of it. joy would always say that yeri would be better off in slytherin if she weren't so fixated on gathering as much information as possible, be they useful in social settings or not. it was what probably edged her toward ravenclaw than the house of snakes.

they stop at a dark corner to wait for their next con, potions at the ready in yeri’s inexpensive satchel. it was one passed down from her father.

“you’re a scary little punk, my oh my.” joy laughs.

yeri winks as quiet footsteps round the corner; right on time to be scammed by the demonic duo, as they like to call themselves. “been learning from the best.”

 

 

 

 

 

weeks pass by, and yeri sees more of wendy's back than she does her front. _interesting_ , yeri thinks, amused. _but how long can you keep it up?_

with just a few days before the announcement of the champions, desperate orders for yeri's potions have spread throughout the school and her and joy are up in their necks in various orders; though the aging potion didn't work at first, yeri has concocted some other recipes. she's absolutely certain that their potions professor is aware of her and joy's scam and the slowly dwindling supplies in the potions cabinet of school, but they've always had favoritism towards yeri, the muggleborn potions prodigy.

"what? it was only five galleons last time!"

honestly, five galleons is way too high a price for this elixir. it cost, at best, maybe a few sickles to make. but more than mixing substances, yeri loves raking in money. "last time was a week before the announcement was coming. this takes a lot of labor, you know."

it really doesn't, but he doesn't need to know that. instead he passes over the coins and yeri exchanges it with the vial. she waits for him to turn the corner before walking to head back to the dorms, but is surprised by a familiar body waiting right outside the door.

she eyes her before the beauxbatons girl can notice, brow furrowing at the defeated stance. she looks past wendy to see some younger students glaring at each other.

"it's almost curfew." yeri says, cutting through the silence and preventing their glaring contest from going further. "what seems to be the matter?"

one of them— a young girl— speaks up in hope. "we can't figure out the riddle and this brute—"

"hey!" the boy says as yeri suppresses a snort.

"doesn't want to go in without figuring it out! I have homework to do!"

yeri's eyes fall to wendy, whose mouth is set in a grim line once again. "and I suppose you tried convincing them to come in by using the knock?" she asks and receives a quick nod in response. the prefect hums and steps closer towards the younger students, ruffling the hair of the boy and placing her hand on the shoulder of the girl. "want to know something?"

"what?" the boy grumbles out, only slightly appeased by the affectionate gesture. they were still kids, probably 12 year olds, and were still tiny enough that yeri probably looked like a giant to them.

"sometimes it's better to work smart than hard, especially when you've already done everything you can."

"but we haven't!" he protests.

yeri nods. "yes, you have. you've been out here for quite a while and have done your best to figure it out. now, my question for you is, which is smarter? to let me guide you to the answer, or to let miss wendy here, our guest, use the secret knock to let you in?" she asks them, gesturing toward the older girl.

he frowns, but they end up choosing to let her help them, and yeri watches their eyes brighten in realization as they proudly tell the knocker the answer, running inside the dorms in relief.

"you're a good prefect." wendy says, out of the blue, and yeri raised a brow but thanks her anyway. "look, I. it's just." the older girl says, guilty and confused from where yeri can see her.

she can tell the other girl is uncomfortable with speaking about this, and, though yeri can't understand because it's just _politics_ , she does empathize. "will you tell me something?" she asks, and the beauxbatons girl is obviously dreading it. the ravenclaw raises her finger to point at the crest on the chest of the other girl, particularly at the purple lining. "what does this mean?" now that yeri is closer, she can see that the crest itself is different, with a butterfly in contrast to whatever the other students have.

wendy blinks several times, staring at yeri and then the crest and then the purple threads adorning it shaped like a butterfly. "this is the crest of my school house. I'm a—"

"stop right there." yeri says, raising a hand. "I'll figure it out." she says, using the knock for the door and letting herself in as the girl stays rooted to her spot outside the common room, in the same place she was standing when yeri first met and came across her. yeri feels almost lightheaded again with the way her blood tingles at the prospect of a puzzle to figure out.

a puzzle named wendy shon.

 

 

 

 

 

“—kang!”

the hufflepuffs’ cheers throughout the hall are the loudest, and with good reason. it was an honor to represent hogwarts in the tournament, and now it was a privilege that one of their very own was endowed with.

yeri pays more attention to the seventh year being hugged by his housemates, his sister seulgi in particular at the head of the crowd. she tries to avoid eyeing her own disappointed upperclassmen at their table.

“what a joke.”

“bet you five knuts he'll be too dumb to solve the puzzles on his own.”

“ _I_ bet he’ll be begging us to help him figure it out.”

“didn't know knobheads bet on things that were _obvious_ now. you truly only get more stupid down the line, don't you.”

the seventh years are bitter, and yeri isn't surprised. at least the beauxbatons students seemed amused; though it was in bad taste, they were entertained by the insults thrown towards the teens gathered in cheers and celebration.

the elder kang proceeds to the waiting area, first of the champions to take his spot. it takes a while for the hall to settle down before the next champion’s name is spat out by the cup.

“and to no one's surprise.” yeri mumbles as the beauxbatons champion is announced. the girl she remembers as the pretty one/head girl/champion bet stands up from their table with polite clapping from her fellow students and ravenclaws alike.

“she's got a much better chance at winning.” someone mutters, and the beauxbatons students’ eyes are filled with mirth.

“you'd rather support our champion than your own?” a foreign boy sneers, chin jutted out in derision. “I suppose loyalty is too much to ask, _non_?”

“in this tournament, it doesn't matter with whom your loyalties lie.” yeri interrupts, sparking the interest of the older students. “our loyalty will not help them. or should I say— won't _save_ them.”

she catches wendy’s eyes as she says this, a few students down, and the girl pales several shades as the rest realize that this wasn't in fact a tournament for fun. it was for glory and fame. even if it meant death.

yeri’s eyes linger on the other girl as quiet murmurs start. she wonders why wendy is so scared, but most of all why they never considered the dangerous consequences of the triwizard tournament. _curious_ , yeri thinks, and she feels like she's floating again as wendy’s eyes gradually possess a faraway look, even if the other girl seemed to want to avoid yeri as much as possible. the goblet spits out another piece of paper without either of them noticing; wendy too busy fiddling with her fingers and yeri too busy staring, an unsettling feeling taking place in the middle of her chest.

“representing durmstrang institute... irene bae!”

 


	2. cutting flobberworm mucus with a sword

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yeah.  
> months in the making, but the poll over on Twitter was the last push I needed to actually finish this up. here you go. only half of this was beta-read but that was my own fault and not my beta’s, heh.
> 
> until next time,  
> ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ

         it was well known throughout hogwarts that history of magic was a complete waste of time, and the ravenclaw house accepted that fact with grace: by advising the younger students to wear ear plugs and study for other courses during the three hours they’d spend in classroom 4F. that was sort of what yeri was doing now, purple ear plugs set and fingers tapping on the desk as she reads through the unsatisfyingly short list in front of her.

yeri would be lying if she said her research has gotten her anywhere. so far all she’s gathered are the following facts: the shons are an incredibly old, incredibly rich, and incredibly french family (obviously), wendy is the youngest out of an unknown number of siblings (discovered through joy’s off-hand remark), and wendy’s beauxbatons house is papillonlisse (found out with some gentle bribing on yeri’s part).

she sees a sleek piece of parchment slide over her desk; a scrawl slowly disappearing as she reads through it.

_d’you know which classes you’ll be dropping?_

yeri frowns. _what kind of question is that?_ she turns to see big brown eyes staring at her; it was her prefect counterpart. although he seemed a little frightened of her furrowed brows, his smile was encouraging conversation. so she writes down her exact thoughts.

_it’s too early to say._

it slides back to him and he writes quickly and messily, therein starting a silent conversation between them. yeri never paid much attention to boys— or girls— or _anyone_. not when she had a lot more interest in learning all that she could from this new world. even though she’s had a few years in it, she hasn’t even scratched the surface.

this particular boy is a little annoying though, and his charming smile on an attractive face attached to a muscular body (he's a beater for the ravenclaw quidditch team) is doing nothing but make yeri frown.

_I’ll drop this subject for sure_

_good for you._

_what about you? not potions, right?_

_probably not._

of _course_ not. was he dense? it wasn’t a secret that yeri was the best of the bunch in potions on any day; and her concoctions had been praised by their professor each time. her head of house was planning on giving her information about any potions apprenticeship, and she had already petitioned for alchemy as an elective come sixth year. no one else was interested and it wasn’t high in demand, like, at all, so it probably wouldn’t push through. shame.

_I myself might drop potions. the professor’s a prick_

yeri doesn’t care, and she makes that clear by throwing away the paper with a flick of her wand. she had work to do. charms essay in one day, and transfiguration deadline the next. to add to that, she had to deal with project proposals in case she wanted to up her class standing (not that she needed it) and to better prepare her for n.e.w.t.s and whatever comes after acing those.

she frowns, thinking of how much time prefect duties would be cutting into that had previously been reserved for daily tasks, like homework and researching for leisure. she can’t ask for a time-turner because her load wasn’t enough to grant one, and it wasn’t like she could walk around the dark halls reading her book. too bad they had no such thing as audiobooks in the— _wait. that’d be a good project, actually._

yeri decides then and there to both visit the library soon and start brainstorming immediately; meaning right now while the professor drones on about the giant wars and her fellow prefect sighs in disappointment.

she keeps the list in her robe pocket, to be visited again another time.

 

 

 

 

 

sometimes spells had grey areas between them, especially between charms and transfiguration. yeri has heard that for one n.e.w.t requirement was to change vinegar into wine for _charms_. upon consideration, it seemed more like a de-aging charm to do so than it was a reconstruction of the liquid’s core make up— though that would be up for debate.

since the line between the two courses was so blurry, yeri ends up picking out twice the number of books she would on a usual study session. she’s approaching a library table by the window before she notices her favorite beauxbatons student seated against a bookshelf, looking a little frazzled and donning a casual striped shirt as it was the weekend.

“hey butterfly.” yeri quips, amused at wendy’s surprise as the girl almost snaps her neck in looking at her with such haste. “there are free chairs and tables, you know.”

wendy bites her lip and yeri takes the opportunity to read the types of books the girl has spread about. _a history of the triwizard tournament. safety hazards of wizarding competitions. the tale of the first champion, pierre_ —

“that last one is a fictional book. not sure it’s what you’re looking for.” she says, placing her materials on the table she’d been eyeing earlier and picking up the said storybook. “you're cross-checking just how dangerous the tournament is and any possible tasks, right?”

“how did you— “

yeri just sends her an unimpressed stare. “the important books here have probably already been borrowed by the hufflepuffs or students from durmstrang.” she says, taking note of their battered state, scattered around wendy’s person.

the older girl looks down almost pathetically. “I don't know where else to search.” she admits.

yeri doesn't know why wendy is here, looking for sources about the triwizard tournament. she doesn't know why the beauxbatons girl is suddenly talking to her again, either. all she knows is that wendy is sad, and a little depressing to look at, and she wants to fix that as soon as possible.

the library isn't the ravenclaw tower; not several meters high, not a place reserved for only the most curious minds, not slathered in blue and bronze and large and beautiful; but yeri feels something inside her flutter all the same.

“did you notice that the tower has several books in it?” yeri asks, quietly, like it was a secret.

wendy tilts her head like a puppy. “yes…? but I thought those were, um, private.”

technically, they should be.

the walls of the common room were crawling with bookshelves filled with personal accounts of previous ravenclaws ever since the very first school year in hogwarts. as a first year, yeri was disappointed to realize that she had no relatives on that wall. she watched as the other children greedily picked up the diaries of their parents, grandparents, and so on.

that was when older muggleborns pulled her aside, taking her under their wing. _you've an opportunity not many others do, you know_ , they'd said. yeri didn't understand it then, but she does now: that her descendants would be looking up her own diary along these walls when the time comes, so she better make hers story worth reading as the first of her line.

“the triwizard tournament has been going on for centuries between the three schools. what are the chances that at least _one_ of our previous champions was a ravenclaw? what are the chances that at least one student would write a detailed account of their year when it was held?”

wendy’s eyes light up, and yeri feels like she's flying. “not a very slim one.” she replies, softly, hopefully.

“not a very slim one at all.” yeri nods, lips curling in amusement at the childlike wonder. “let me borrow these books first and then let's get to the tower.” she says, and moves to do just that.

“wait.” wendy says, stopping her from going any further. yeri looks down to see wendy pulling at her plaid sleeve shyly, and she resists moving because of the hold the older has on her shirt. “why are you helping me? you've loads to do.”

she's right, but yeri doesn't know what to say.

so the ravenclaw does what she always does instead, which is to avoid the question. “your beauxbatons house is papillonlisse, directly translated as _smooth butterfly_. you’re all associated to be artistic, sociable, and mature. but most of all, very kind.” she mentions, stepping closer. “will you be kind enough to answer my question before I answer yours?”

wendy looks hesitant, but nods all the same; lips set in a grim line. “I will.”

“why does the tournament matter so much to you?”

the girl snaps back in shock, and her hold on yeri’s sleeve breaks. “I. what? why wouldn’t I be concerned?” she sputters.

yeri straightens out her sleeve and stares at wendy carefully, as if the girl would disappear if she blinked. “I get that you’re kind and all, but researching for the champion? why is it your business?” she questions, staring deeply into honey-brown eyes warmed by the blue glow of dusk.

wendy looks confused, and yeri feels even more so. it’s here that the prefect feels out of depth— she knows nothing about wendy besides her french lineage and school house. her concern for the tournament didn’t fully make sense; she was only strolling along the inter-school attempt at unity by force, wasn’t she? it didn’t really matter who won the tournament, right? who _is_ wendy shon? and what matters to her?

yeri doesn’t know, but she desperately wants to.

“I mean, I understand school pride and all, and perhaps by extension your house qualities… but I don’t think those would account for all this trouble.” she gestures vaguely to the piles of books around them. “so I really can't comprehend— “

“why I’m helping her.”

the ravenclaw nods in reply.

“yeri… the beauxbatons champion— she’s my sister. of course I’d be scared.”

  


(yeri is eleven when a hogwarts professor arrives with her letter of acceptance. she has only two younger sisters at this time; the third one still on her way. she remembers hands wrapped around her own— smaller, but only slightly— while the professor looks on with a kind yet sad smile.

“I’m sorry, yeri, but you cannot take your sister with you. maybe in a year, she’ll receive a letter too.”

“can you promise me that she will?” yeri asks, gulping. the worst thing that she’s ever thought of was to lose any of her family, but it seems like they were going to lose her first.

her parents are seated together, hands shaking in fear. her sister’s grip is tight, but instead of feeling suffocated, yeri only feels grounded.

“I’m afraid I can’t promise you that.”)

 

(a year passes, and twelve-year-old yeri looks on as her sister cries in her sleep, crestfallen.

she brushes stray hairs away from the younger’s face, thinking of housemates that turn a blind eye when she’s bruised up by slytherins, of prefects deducting points because of a lack of etiquette she’s never been taught, of nights she longingly watches her yearmates go on and on about their predecessors’ diaries up on the ravenclaw bookshelves.

 _if that’s what it takes to be part of the wizarding world, I’d rather you stay here_ , she thinks.)

 

(the second sister that’s born after yeri is four years old when she finally sends their eldest a letter, written on pink stationery and with crayons; a drawing of the four sisters— a baby and a four year old and a twelve year old all with yeri— at the bottom right.

_will you come to my birthday party this year? I’ll be good so you can. promise. please?_

yeri is thirteen the first time she throws fists at a schoolmate in the middle of the hallway. there are no professors; only students stunned and watching her warily after potions. it’s fitting that the boy in question is a gryffindor and the dungeons become a place he will soon be frightened of.

the pink stationery is ripped and crumpled, but the bully is down and bleeding.

“let this be a lesson not to mess with me or my things again.”

they stop after that.

yeri wonders if the school would be a safer place for her sisters now, if they studied here, but knows deep inside it doesn’t matter. hogwarts isn’t a place they will ever be able to see.)

 

(yeri sits in the common room by the window, holding purple stationery this time. it seems her second sister has moved on from her previous favorite color.

_you said the pictures you sent would be moving ones, but they aren’t. why did you lie?_

she should’ve known better than to send wizarding photos and expect her sister to see. it was a pathetic attempt at amusing her; but in the end has just made her think yeri a liar. the ravenclaw releases the paper in hand with a soft whimper and cradles her head in her trembling hands; the common room silent and merciless in the dead of night.

it would be better if her second sister moved on and had a different favorite sibling instead, too. maybe she would be disappointed less that way.)

 

(she strikes a deal: blow everyone else out of the water come midterms and her head of house will talk to the headmaster about letting her visit home when her sisters’ birthdays come up.

the headmaster clears their throat when yeri and her head of house are in the middle of the large office. “you realize that this hasn’t been done before. to travel to the muggle world regularly— “

“is different than to floo directly to one’s house, I know. but I love my sisters just as much as the next pureblood loves their own, if not more.” she argues, thinking of blood feuds and grown men frothing at the mouth over rights to become heir; comparing it to her soft lullabies recorded on her sisters’ phones to put them to sleep. “the logic should apply. I should be allowed to go home.”

what’s done is done, and yeri makes it to her sister’s birthday party without a warning addressed to her parents. she sees their eyes search around apprehensively before they embrace her, but she doesn’t comment.

she just cradles her second sister in her arms, muffling the cries of _you made it! you promised and you made it!_ coming from the small body and ignoring the breaking of her heart at how a birthday party has become such a despondent affair.)

 

(yeri is fourteen when her youngest sister cries in her hands; thinking her a stranger.

“it’s alright, sweetheart. it’s just that she’s not used to you yet.” her mother gently tell her, grabbing their youngest back while yeri’s father pats her head. her hands turn into fists by her sides, thinking how it shouldn’t be this way. her youngest sister doesn’t even know who she _is_.

“think I’ll take a walk.” yeri announces, turning from her parents and ignoring their pained gazes. “the little one can come with me if she wants.”

“I’m not little anymore! I’m five!” said girl harrumphs but lets their eldest change her into different clothes and pack her water bottle and snacks anyway. “I want to go to the park.”

so yeri brings her, holding her hand the whole way there and letting her play on the swings and make new friends.

the other adults and teens around her are on their phones, but yeri has no use for those. she watches her sister like a hawk, instead, satisfied with every moment she spends with her family even if they will never be enough.)

 

(yeri slams the door shut and locks it for good measure. “stay on the couch.”

their second eldest, only a year younger than yeri, does just that. she’s cradling her wrist in one hand and trying to stop any whimper from coming out of her mouth. “yeri— “

“no one is home.” yeri cuts her off, getting an ice pack out and sitting beside her to place it over the injured joint. “so try your best not to move. no one is expecting you to do any chores just yet.”

“I’m sorry. what that boy said… it’s true. I’ve been talking behind your back.”

yeri nods, hands fiddling on the ice pack as they sit with thighs touching on the couch. she wants to let her sister talk because she’s afraid if she asks she’ll start crying.

_why do you hate me? is that what you think of me now? I never chose to abandon you. I love you. why can’t you see that I don’t want to be apart from you either?_

“I was jealous.” says her sister.

yeri says nothing as she cradles a hand in her own— smaller than hers, but only slightly.

she hugs her sister close as the younger cries about the fact that she’d stayed mum when a stupid bully had insulted yeri. she’s the eldest, after all; it was her job to protect them in whichever way she can. she wonders if they ever stopped to think about that fact.

wonders if, had they been in her place, they’d do the same.)

  


( _“—shon!”_ )

why didn’t yeri notice that announcement? all she remembered was that the pretty girl was the one to be champion— the girl who, as it turned out, is wendy shon’s older sibling.

the ravenclaw stares into the elder’s eyes to see a familiar look adorning wendy’s face, the worry that sometimes takes over her own sister’s visage; a nervousness that maybe only younger siblings often feel. distantly, yeri wonders if seulgi’s eyes look the same, having her brother be the hogwarts champion. the representatives may have been seventeen and legally of age, but that didn’t mean much beyond a knowledge of all the spells schooling would give them, did it?

(what would yeri’s sisters do, if _she_ had ended up being chosen by the goblet? if they were here?)

“then we’d better get started soon.” the prefect says, finally, handing a few of her books to wendy. “help me carry these and I’ll help you search the tower. tit for tat.”

the foreign girl’s eyes have a slight sheen to them when yeri looks at her next.

this discovery of familial relation is an addition to her list, but somehow, yeri feels solemn rather than excited. it explains why the girl had been deathly pale at the feast during the announcement.

“is she your only sibling?” yeri asks quietly as they walk up the winding staircases that lead to the tower.

“yes.” wendy whispers. “she’s all I have.”

yeri nods and watches wendy get lost in her own sea of memories, entranced by the beauxbatons girl. she's slowly finding out that wendy has an appeal that reminds her of spring after a deadly winter; the soft glow of morning after the longest night; home after going through a crowd of strangers in an unfamiliar town a thousand miles away. but to wendy, yeri was probably just a muggleborn that turned out to be useful.

wendy, in turn, doesn’t ask yeri if she herself has any siblings. the prefect shouldn't be surprised— and she isn't.

somehow, though, it still hurts.

 

 

 

 

 

it takes a few weeks, but the books off the tower’s shelves eventually appease wendy’s worries. tales of participants heroically surviving seemingly impossible feats fill her aching chest with relief in place of dread, and yeri watches her eyes shine with life once again; nights of staying up late until the candles burn to stumps taking over yeri’s schedule.

they only ever meet up in secret at night, by the furthest corner of the common room right beside the windows where the shadows mingle with their own. yeri doesn’t have to ask why.

while on the one hand wendy is slowly getting satisfied by what they read; on the other, the personal accounts only incite yeri’s curiosity. the narratives provided seem to suggest that the champions actually… _cheated_ during the tournament?

yeri’s eyebrows furrow in concentration as she reads passage after passage of instances where the champions had been advised by professors, headmasters, and even the game masters themselves in order to figure out the clues and tasks.

_that’s weird._

not that the previous ravenclaws took note of these instances, nor the fact that there was cheating involved. but the fact that the authorities were the ones suggesting it. these weren’t isolated cases either; they happened every. single. time. so that should mean that the champions are in good hands, right? their respective headmasters would have at least clued them in on the tasks.

she proceeds to say so to wendy, but the older girl doesn’t look like she’s on the same page. if anything, she looks as if the dread had come back full force.

“no. that can’t be.” the beauxbatons student murmurs, her slowly panicking state setting her glasses askew. yeri’s noticed that the older girl had been wearing spectacles since they’d started reading through the journals.

the younger settles back against her seat, arms crossing in front of her chest. “yes, it can. it probably already _is_ the case. why don’t you ask your sister if she’d tried approaching your headmistress?” she comments, eyes narrowing as the older girl gets up from her own cushioned seat.

yeri watches wendy pace around the common room in a frenzy; hands running through her hair, furiously whispering _no no no, then she doesn’t have a chance_.

“whoa, alright, wait.” she cuts the elder off, holding onto the fuzzy blue hem of wendy’s sweater to stop the girl from walking around in circles more. “don’t burn through the carpet.” she deadpans, her hand turning into a fist and creasing the fabric.

wendy looks at her, and yeri looks back.

there is the heavy weight of words hidden behind the elder’s eyes that yeri doesn’t understand; a story she isn’t given the opportunity to comprehend. maybe it was a pureblood thing— a family secret, perhaps. maybe the shons and the headmistress didn’t agree on certain terms, and hence the elder shon had no chance because she wouldn’t get help from her. or maybe the headmistress was just downright batty.

“we have to do something.” wendy starts, biting her lip unsurely. “she— we need to help. can we approach someone else? maybe they’d have an idea?”

mhmm. no _way_ are they just going to go up to the hogwarts headmaster considering yeri’s past with them. and it would be unprofessional for her to approach her potions professor concerning this, no matter how much they adored yeri.

“right? yeri?”

she closes her eyes and sighs, wondering what she’s gotten herself into and why she doesn’t even mind going down further; something in the middle of her chest dancing at the thought of helping the beauxbatons girl.

it was just interest in how far the pureblood girl will go in asking her for a favour.

surely.

that was why she should at least make wendy work a little harder for it; a response that was along the lines of _you’ll have to try harder than that to convince me_ to be coming out of her mouth.

“ _yeri_.”

“I’ll see what I can do.” is what she ends up saying, instead.

 

 

 

 

 

she’s early for first period when the opportunity arises the next day, waiting right by the door of her charms classroom.

“seulgi?”

said hufflepuff looks up from staring at the floor and seems glad to see her, if a little concerned. the older girl gives her a greeting which yeri returns. “I was wondering if you’d seen joy around recently…”

yeri shakes her head. her last few weeks have been busy, and joy and her had no reason to meet up once the champions were announced. they rarely got paired up to make prefect rounds as well.

“it’s just… you’ve heard, right?”

the younger pauses. “heard what?”

seulgi looks around, as if guilty to be sharing the piece of information she was about to hand over. “it’s not really for me to say, but…” she says unsurely. “their previous park head... joy’s grandfather. he died.”

that’s news to yeri, though she doesn’t see why it was such a big concern. grandparents die all the time, don’t they? it must have shown on her face, because seulgi takes her time to explain it to her, and it was a lot of pureblood nonsense again; of the previous heir locking in his seat as head and joy moving up the line to be heir presumptive.

“her parents are probably upping the pressure. I wanted to check in and since you two are friends, well, you know.”

yeri nods. “I haven’t seen her around, though.” she says, fixing the satchel on her shoulder.

she watches the girl practically deflate in disappointment. “oh. alright.” she says, turning away. “thanks anyway, then.”

“wait!”

the older turns back to face her, a questioning gaze taking over her face and a _yes?_ at the tip of her tongue.

yeri nervously tugs at her own blue robes. “has your brother had any progress on the first task? or what it could be, I mean.” she asks awkwardly, as if they hadn’t been talking about someone being dead just two sentences ago. it was kind of uncomfortable, but yeri needed to know; seulgi kang was her only connection to the hogwarts champion.

seulgi shakes her head, but her eyes are narrowed in suspicion. “he’s got detention these next few days thanks to his partner botching their potions project.”

“oh.”

“yeah. sleeve caught fire.”

that’s an incident that has happened way too many times. why was this even their uniform if they were so flammable and inconvenient? “I see.” she deadpans.

“but,” seulgi starts again. “he told me that he’s been… tapped, to go by the hut near the edge of the forest later this evening. asked me to go in his stead, in secret.” she says expectantly, watching her. waiting to hear yeri’s reaction. “a little past curfew.”

yeri veins thrum at the perfect opening. “would you like some company, then? a prefect by your side would be a foolproof excuse for loitering.” she says.

seulgi nods. “I’ll meet you by the courtyard at half past ten tonight.”

the ravenclaw agrees as the older girl walks away, thinking of the desperate situation that made a _hufflepuff_ of all people be susceptible to tipping the scales in their favor. then she remembers wild honey-brown eyes and shaking hands smaller than her own; the image of an older sibling down and out for good. maybe that was why.

(if yeri were in the champions’ place, her sisters would find out about her death through the headmaster, at best. a _letter_ , at worst.)

she clutches her father’s satchel closer and proceeds to her seat.

 

 

 

 

 

on second thought, maybe this isn't such a good idea.

it’s taking everything out of yeri not to scream at every slight movement around them in the forbidden forest, latching onto seulgi under the large cloak they’d shared to hide for dear life.

seulgi grunts when yeri accidently knocks an elbow into her stomach, trying to stifle a laugh. “can you stop squirming?” she whispers amusedly.

yeri shudders when she hears a critter hop by. “sure, when the creepy crawlies stop creepy crawling, maybe.” she whispers back accusingly, telling herself that the bug-like feeling she’s getting all across her skin is just her imagination. _please_.

the older stops abruptly and yeri flails back into her, too preoccupied with scanning the ground to have seen the sight seulgi has.

“ouch! give a warning next ti—”

yeri registers a hand clamping around her mouth and her back against the bark of a tree before she notices seulgi’s panicked state. _I swear, if it’s anything less than a centaur I will flay her alive_ , yeri thinks grumpily as her eyes search around for the cause of panic.

 _oh bloody hell_. she might have thought too soon, because a few trees beyond them is a giant shadow that lurks and seems way too big to be human. _oh bloody fucking hell. I’m going to die in the middle of the forbidden forest._

the shadow looms even closer and yeri is miserably recounting just what she’s doing here— for wendy? a girl she’d just met? this is almost embarrassing. it wasn’t even a noble death. at least seulgi had a good reason to—

_oh god. where’s seulgi?_

in her resigned acceptance of her slowly approaching demise, yeri hadn't noticed that the weight against her had long left and was now instead standing in the middle of the clearing, ignoring the shadow that’s— suddenly disappeared. huh.

yeri looks up, too, and sees the terrifying, once-in-a-lifetime view of actual dragons caged and kept quiet by silencing charms and being pulled by their necks by dragon-tamers.

seulgi looks back at yeri, and they share a silent, horrified thought with one another amidst the foreboding fumes emitted from the snouts of the creatures and the creeping dark cold of the forbidden forest.

the champions will be facing _dragons_.

she has to tell wendy.

 

 

 

 

 

easier said than done.

yeri huffs away a few strands of hair from her face, staring at wendy and her entourage from her place in the courtyard. this time, wendy is with friends from her own school; not seulgi. seulgi is probably too busy with both warning her brother and worrying over joy.

well. nothing she can do if wendy would rather die than be seen with her and won’t even bother to make time for them to meet.

“yeri?”

she turns to see her fellow ravenclaw prefect smiling unsurely at her, standing awkwardly near where she is— not too near for intimate conversation, and yet not too far that they have to speak too loudly. “hey,” she responds monotonously.

his eyes flit toward where she was looking earlier before settling back on her. “waiting for someone?” he asks, gesturing to their predicament: him half blocking the corner of the hallway and her leaning against one of the stone walls facing the garden beyond them. “another customer, maybe?”

she shrugs. not much to sell now that the champions have been announced and joy is missing in action.

_oh, yeah._

“have you seen joy around?” she asks, turning towards him fully as he blinks away surprise.

the pureblood families are a tight-knit community, and he’s as pure as they come. not as historical as the parks and kangs, but still noteworthy on their own. if anyone knew anything about what was going on with joy, it would probably be people like him.

“no, I haven’t seen her around.” he replies, shoving a hand in his pocket and gritting his teeth a bit. “but the park line has moved down now that the head has passed. as heir presumptive I’m sure she’s under a lot of pressure.”

“that’s what seulgi says.” yeri sighs dramatically. “but what difference does it make, really?”

he smiles icily. “I don’t think it’s something you’d understand if your effort into assimilating is… this. joy has always been in line for presumptive, and with the birth of a younger brother she’d be pushed out of line.”

“that’s not likely, though.”

“it’s not. now that the head is busy wrangling the politics left behind by the previous one, joy is left to wrangle with the duties of heir that she hasn’t yet previously touched; like assets and businesses.”

yeri nods, but she still wonders at the pressure they keep talking about.

“that and… because she’s a girl, they’re thinking of who best to let her marry.”

she narrows her eyes at him. “I figured.”

he nods. “I mean, the parks will probably host a ball for that, but. essentially… they’d be fishing for a prospective husband for her. probably a second son or after— the parks are much too rich on their own and don’t need much power beyond what they already have..”

yeri purses her lips, thinking of seulgi’s loving gaze and joy’s peaceful smile whenever they’re together. “bummer.” she says, turning back to find wendy in her group of friends. the older girl’s eyes catch hers for a split second, and the ravenclaw sighs. “sometimes feelings really don’t matter, huh.”

he laughs humorlessly before leaning next to her against the wall, looking at a group of durmstrang boys convening in another corner. “I’m finding that they _rarely_ do, actually.”

 

 

 

 

 

wendy catches her eye in the common room later that evening, and yeri opts to ignore it. she’s never been noticed by the other girl in front of other students beyond seulgi and joy, and it doesn’t seem like that will change anytime soon.

instead, she lets her eyes quickly scan over the other beauxbatons students surrounding the older girl; a fair-haired boy more lanky than he would be wide and two tall girls sharing an inside joke with one another, it seemed.

“fancy seeing you here.”

yeri blinks and turns to see the same boy from earlier, now out of his robes and only in a sweater. “you again.”

he laughs— awkwardly bumbling, still— and offers to play a game of wizard’s chess.

“I’ve got nothing better to do.” she teases before settling down, neck burning with the gaze she feels coming from the other side of the common room from a certain beauxbatons student.

 

 

 

 

 

yeri stretches out her legs as she leans against the window of the tower, field of vision filled with the night sky and the moonlight. she smells wendy before she hears or sees her, weirdly enough— sweet and powdery, like vanilla with hints of fruit.

“hi, yeri.” the older girl greets, all soft lines and soothing energy. “long day?”

“you could say that.” she responds. “I got what you wanted, though.”

wendy blinks in surprise— whether she forgot about it or is surprised yeri was able to extract any information from anybody, the ravenclaw would rather not know, since she _did_ kind of put her life on the line for this.

“the first task involves dragons. from what the hogwarts champion’s been told,” she starts to say, not feeling even a pinch of guilt for eavesdropping on his conversation with seulgi— she was _there_ , anyway, “you should be prepared to steal its eggs.”

the older girl pauses by her place next to one of the seats, and yeri stares at the way wendy’s fingers dig into the cushion. “ _dragons_.” she says, breathlessly. “thank you. I should—”

yeri nods.

“—why are you still in your robes?”

the prefect stops, and, in an intelligent response her own house would be proud of, asks, “huh?”

wendy scuffs a shoe against the carpet, avoiding yeri’s gaze like a guilty puppy. “you— um, I noticed you spending a lot of time with, that one boy—”

“my _prefect counterpart_?” yeri asks incredulously, wondering if she was hearing this right.

“prefect duties include playing wizard’s chess and pretending to lose?” she counters, making a face, and yeri almost laughs at how bizarre this is. “but I noticed. um. that.”

yeri raises a brow. “right. and?”

“and _nothing_. I just thought it was worth mentioning.” she grits out, radiating frustration.

yeri cackles. “right, worth mentioning. of course.” she nods along as wendy increasingly looks more agitated as the seconds pass. yeri is feeling a slight buzz under her skin, too, and she wonders whether something between them is about to snap when wendy teeters on moving closer or running away.

the older girl clicks her tongue instead and looks away. “right.” she says, voice devoid of the earlier frustration, as if she’s deflated. “right, right.” she repeats.

yeri stands and moves closer instead, wondering if wendy can feel the thrum pushing through her own veins. “I asked him about joy.”

“joy?”

she nods. “seulgi was worried, and I thought if I had any information on joy I could pay her back. she helped me find out about the dragons.”

wendy deflates even more; in a different way this time, but yeri can’t pinpoint exactly how, just that it _is_. “and you thought… asking your prefect partner would help.”

yeri shrugs, slowly, carefully, as if wendy would fly away if she did it too fast. something about the entire situation is a little too intimate. “yeah. that’s what I was thinking, anyway.” she remarks. “and I didn’t think wizard’s chess was too high a price.”

wendy doesn’t need to know that she’d already figured joy’s situation out before the game. what she doesn’t know won’t hurt her.

“I know I come off as a scammer.” yeri jokes, and is delighted to hear wendy giggle. “but… I do try to make things even. especially if the payoff is worth it.”

wendy’s eyes seem to sparkle with interest rather than derision with that revelation, surprisingly. “what are you getting out of helping me?”

 _getting to spend time with you, even in secret_ , yeri admits to herself in her head, because there’s no way she could lie to herself any longer after going through that for _one girl_.

wendy’s eyes narrow when yeri’s smile only grows bigger.

“I wonder.”

 

 

 

 

 

the first task commences, and yeri watches with bated breath as the elder shon puts the dragon in a trance and makes sure to avoid the flames from a snore from singing her robes. yeri tries to hide a smile at that contingency both she and wendy had thought up of, and claps along in amazement at the sheer magical prowess the beauxbatons champion has for that spell to work on a _dragon_.

she catches wendy’s eye and winks— earning her a laugh from the sweet girl from france.

all three champions come off unharmed, with the durmstrang champion in the lead after an amazing show from summoning a broom. she looked a little green handling the height, if one asked yeri, but her skills on that broom were almost on par with their best players in hogwarts. so bae leads, with shon and kang trailing closely behind.

the first task is done, and, while a lot of things about the school year changes, it seems as if nothing does between her and wendy.

but was she expecting anything to?

 

 

 

 

 

it’s the 10th of december when the school suddenly turns on its head, and yeri wakes up to mistletoes decorating almost every nook and cranny of hogwarts.

“isn’t it a weird time to start yuletide celebrations?” she asks her prefect partner once they sit together for transfiguration. her usual seat has been occupied by a gryffindor, so she takes the one beside him instead.

he runs a hand through his hair. “it _is_ december… so.” he trails off with a clearing of his throat as yeri looks at him weirdly.

“and so?” she humors him nonetheless. “december started a week ago. why not decorate the halls then?”

their professor comes in and tells them to stand and move aside, transfiguring their desks into benches to line the walls, _yule ball on christmas eve_ coming out their mouth and the excited gasps of her yearmates filling in yeri’s ears.

 _what in the world_.

 

 

 

 

 

“so, um, about that ball…”

yeri abruptly stops in the hallway as they’ve only just started their weekly rounds, turning to look at her fellow prefect with a suspicious gaze. “yes. what about it?” she questions him as he stops walking as well, shoving a hand in his pocket and scuffing his shoes unsurely.

“I mean…” he starts, now scratching the back of his neck. “err. it’d be nice to… not go alone— and um. if no one’s asked you yet, I was wondering if you’d... like to go with me? as my date to the yule ball?”

her gaze narrows even more, looking him up and down as if he’d been turned inside out as only one word comes out her mouth.

“ _what_.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> canon discrepancies:
> 
> (1) papillonlisse is a fandom-created house in beauxbatons. often used for roleplay.  
> (2) there is no information on what exactly the bookshelves in the ravenclaw tower are filled with.


End file.
